I was reading some of your shared stories the other night and it was nice to know that I wasn't the only woman in the world that has experienced this condition. The one thing that had me and my doctors puzzled was the extreme shoulder pain I had on the right side. It was so painful. They tested me for a pulmonary embolism, gall bladder problems... and nothing could explain it. Now that I see on this site that some women had this horrible pain that not even the strongest of narcotics could touch, I don't feel so alone. It was unbelievable. I feel better knowing that it was part of the preeclampsia and not just a muscle spasm. Thanks.
So here is my story: I started noticing flashes in my... Read More

My son James was my first pregnancy at age 31. I felt great during the first trimester with only a couple bouts of mild nausea, however, starting with the 4th month, I gained about 6-8 pounds per month (blamed it on increased calories!). I could not wear my rings my month 5 and started to notice swelling in my face by month 6. My blood pressure was slowing creeping up starting at month 5, but nothing really high. I also had so much swelling in my legs/feet that I went from shoe size 7 1/2 to 10 1/2 wide and the front of my calves were very tender. I contined to feel good and contined to work full-time.
Two days before my 36-week checkup, I called my doctor

To begin with, I had an awful pregnancy which I think was an indicator as to how my story was going to end.
I was diagnosed with hyperemesis gravidarum at 9 weeks, and things went downhill from there. I was constantly sick and vomiting (upwards 15-20 times per day). I had to take prescription Zofran orally, and I.V. Zofran several times per week. At 21 weeks, I started having regular contractions from the constant dehydration. During all this time, I continued to work full time.
At 28 weeks, I stared having severe swelling, literally over night. I was 124lbs at that point in my pregnancy. I went to sleep on night, and woke up feeling (for lack of a better description) "tight". I... Read More

I was 34 wks preg on 10/11/02. The previous week I had been put on bedrest since I was having high bp readings. I was doing ok at it, but i was difficult. I went to the dr on Tues 10/08/02 and she ordered some bloodwork and a 24 hr urine test. Blood work came back
fine, but urine test showed +3 protein. I went back into her office on Friday, the 11th at 2pm for a followup, when she revealed the results of the urine test and found that I still was having hbp
problems, and at that time had a bp of 123/115. She promptly diagnosed me with preeclampsia, and said that since the protein in my urine and bp had been increasing over the past week I needed to have
the baby this weekend. I was 1... Read More

Hello, my name is Simone and I am 27 year old single mom. My son is now eight months old and was born on 02/27/02. I mostly copied and pasted from my on-line journal located at www.thelaboroflove.com.
It all started at my 34 week checkup. They checked my blood pressure, and it was high - about 160/95, when it has been running about 120/65. They had me relax a few minutes, but the lower number (diastolic?) didn't go down. I ended up being in the office for 45 minutes, when I was usually there for five. Dr. M is a woman, and I found her very easy to talk to. I was the last patient of the day, and she sat with me for 20 minutes or so while I was resting on my left side. She had me do a... Read More

I became pregnant at 22 years old. The first several months of my pregnancy were picture perfect. I had the usual symptoms, nothing alarming. At about 22 weeks, I had my first high BP reading in the doctor's office. The nurse asked me if I was nervous, and I said no. The exact same thing happened at my following appointment, a month later. Again, I was asked if I was nervous and I said no. At this time I was about 26 weeks along. I had began to have some mild swelling, but I had no protein in my urine at this point. Three weeks later I went to the doctor (a week before my next scheduled appt.) because I was not feeling well. I had some trouble breathing and felt as though I had a... Read More

hello, my name is risa, and i survived HELLP syndrome back in 1996. i was 26 weeks into my pregnancy, and one night started having severe abdominal pains. i called the doctor who was on call, and he told me to just lie down. and hour later i called again, and told him i was having severe diarrhea. i told him i needed to go to the hospital, and he just laughed me off, and said i was over-reacting, and a little diarrhea doesnt hurt me.
i went to the hospital where i was supposed to deliver, and after bouncing back and forth between the l and d deck , and the emergency room, i was admitted with gallbladder problems. the next morning i was told i could go home. now, this entire time, i was... Read More

My Eclampsia Story My first pregnancy at 26 years of age was trouble free. No high blood pressure. No preeclampsia. However, I began my second preganancy at age 30 with chronic hypertension. I was warned at my first visit by my doctor that we would get to know each other very well...meaning lots more visits this time. The entire pregnancy my blood pressure was well controlled with labetelol. My dosage actually had to be reduced in the middle of the pregnancy because my pressure got too low. Nonetheless, sometime around 37 weeks my pressure rose significantly. The doctor put me on bed rest, increased my meds and said as long as my pressure didn't rise any more and I didn't... Read More

I was diagnosed with preeclampsia with all three of my pregnancies, I believe the condition was inherited since my sister and great-aunt also had it.
The first time I had only a mild case until my due date and I was then induced. After delivery my blood pressue dropped severely and I passed out. I had blood clots and lost a lot of blood, but the hospital was prepared and I was taken care of. I would never even consider delivering in a birthing center.
The second time was a little worse and I was induced one week early. I had no complications.
The third time I was hospitalized 8 weeks before my due date but was released home with bed rest, which isn't easy with a... Read More

I am grateful to have a group like the Preeclampsia Foundation to support. My situation was atypical and illustrates how seemingly random and unexpected preeclampsia can be. I fit none of the risk categories and it was a healthy, problem-free second pregnancy (as was my first). I was not overweight, hypertensive, over 40, having my first baby, or carrying multiples.
There were no indications of the condition until 4 days after I delivered. I was sent home from the hospital after 3 days. My feet were swollen but since I had just had a c-section and since swelling occurred after my first delivery too, I thought nothing of it. On the 4th day I was struck by an excruciating... Read More

The first time I really learned about Preeclampsia
was with my sister and the birth of her preemie
son less than a year ago. I never thought that it
would happen to me but for my entire pregnancy, I
kept it in the back of my mind (and so did my OB/
GYN who had also treated my sister.) The night
before my 31st week visit, I packed my bag - I
would either need it since it would be about the
same time that my sister was admitted to the
hospital for PE or I would just be prepared 9
weeks in advance.
My sister went with me for this Thursday afternoon
visit so she could hear little Noah's heartbeat for
the first time. I had high blood pressure in
previous visits but... Read More

Hi... My name is Roukieh and I am the child of a mother who had preeclampsia. I was born on July 30, 1986. My mom, Kathy, tells me the story of how complicated her pregnancy with me was. I love to hear it over and over again because at the end, she tells me that i am her "miracle" child. I am now 17 years old with a brother 13, and a sister 15. I was born at a hospital in Century City, weighing only 4 lbs 10 oz. i see other stories and i feel as if i was a big baby compared to them, but compared to my friends, i was a doll. My mom also has Epilepsy and the doctor told her that she would be unable to have any children.
My mother was devastated and so was my father. With the doctor's... Read More

My pregnancy had been going well, I was 39 weeks pregnant and patiently waiting for something to happen. It was shortly after midnight, March 5,2002. I started to feel my contractions coming on. This was my second pregnancy and I wasn't concerned of any complications. My water broke at about 4:30AM, at that time I decided it was time to go. My mother drove me to the hospital. I had no pain out of the ordinary, only thing of concern to me was that I was bleeding very heavily. And that seemed to be the concern of the hospital staff. I remember them doing an ultrasound and telling me everything with the placenta looked fine, but I was expelling huge blood clots. And they couldn't see where all... Read More

My name is Amie, and I gave birth to my son 4 weeks ago at 25 1/2 weeks due to preeclampsia. Unfortunately we lost him. If I could back up 4 years, my husband and I lost our first son at 3 weeks. I delivered early (27 weeks) for "unknown causes," and miscarried a year later. When I got pregnant the this time around we figured 3rd times the charm, right? Wrong. My pregnancy went well until I was 17 weeks. I thought I was having a miscarriage because of the pain I suddenly got one morning in my stomach and lower back. My husband rushed me to the ER, and they said I had a kidney infection and that my baby was OK, but I had to stay 4 days anyway for who knows what reason. Literally... Read More

I was 25 years old when I became pregnant. I had been off of birth control for about a year and just waiting to conceive. We were not planning, but instead just waiting for it to happen. The day finally came in March of 2005. My husband and I were thrilled and excited, and both a little nervous! Right from the beginning I took my pregnancy very seroiusly. I quit smoking immediately and made a doctors appointment the next day. Just as we expected we were expecting! My pregnancy was very typical, the usual "morning" sickness and tiredness, aches and pains. I did not let these things bother me because I was to happy to even care, I was one of those people
who loved being... Read More

My story happened almost 4 years ago, but seems like it just happened. I was 30 weeks along when my blood pres. got very high, and I had a high sudden weight gain, I went to the hospital because I was feeling dizzy and seeing white spots, thats when they took a pee sample adn told me to go home and they would call me, when I got home, there was a message on my machine that I was to go to the hospital ASAP and be checked in, I had a lot of protein in my pee. I was in the hospital for one 6 days when I called the doc. in and said that I have not felt the baby for the past 30 minutes, they check and could not find a heart beat, then they dida ultasound and told me that she had died, they... Read More

Hi my name is michelle i have suffered from preeclampsia once.Well let me begin i have a 5 year old daughter that was born healthly 8pounds 6 ounces in 1997. I recently gave birth to a 4pounds 6ounces baby girl april 9, 2002. I was going to my doctor on all my visits explaining my problems of of my feet swelling,face it was so bad that i could not walk. my doctor said it was edema i said ok and kept my feet elevated and slept.But in my 8th month i had real bad headaches and couldnot breathe at night. I went to the emergency room and they told me i had an urine track infection and that was all. They said baby was fine and so was i so i took there word for it.Monday night i... Read More

I'll never forget it. IIt started on the day of March 23rd, 1999. I was 27 years old and a school teacher which I'm currently now. I was on the playground and noticed I had pains like contractions. I thought I was having Braxton Hicks. Everyone kept telling me to sit down but I refused. I said I was fine. I was about 35 1/2 weeks along in my pregnancy. It was going to be my first one. I timed the contractions and they were an hour apart which was way to early to go to the hospital. I ignored the signes. Previous doctors visits showed no elevated blood pressure, but protein in the urine. I was alarmed at the fact that my right foot... Read More

Hello everybody. I am so glad that there is someone else that I can talk to about what happened to me during my fourth pregnancy. First of all let me begin with the happy ending. My daughter Shailyn Grace came into this world and into my life on May 15th, 2006 via my first cesarean section. She was 3 weeks early but very healthy weighing 6lbs and 3 oz. (Not to mention that she was so beautiful and perfect). She is almost 6 months old and is one of the lights of my life (my others being my three other children, Braiden, Heather and Haylee and my husband). She is also the light of their lives. Every other pregnancy I had was perfect except for the fact that I have panic disorder... Read More

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Privacy Policy

Normal web site usageThe Preeclampsia Foundation has a firm commitment to Internet privacy. You can visit most portions of preeclampsia.org without telling us who you are and without revealing any personal information. The only information we collect from a normal web site visit is the name of your Internet Service Provider, the browser and type of machine you are using, the web site that referred you to us, the pages you request and the date and time you request them. We use this information to generate statistics and measure site activity to improve the usefulness of the site to our visitors.

Collection of personally identifiable informationThe Preeclampsia Foundation may collect names, email addresses and other personally identifiable data about visitors when such data is voluntarily submitted to preeclampsia.org. For example, our site uses forms for visitors to register or make a donation online. Contact information from these forms is used to send information about preeclampsia or Foundation activity to our visitors. Financial information is used to bill or provide receipts to visitors in connection with their donations. To ensure the security of credit card and personal information, this Web site employs industry-standard security methods, including the Secure Socket Layers (SSL) protocol for the encryption of transmitted data. The Preeclampsia Foundation goes to great lengths to protect the confidentiality and integrity of any personal information you share with us over the Internet. In instances where we may partner with medical organizations to conduct research on preeclampsia, your participation may be expressly requested, but your permission would be required prior to sharing personally identifiable data with authorized medical organizations.

The Preeclampsia Foundation makes every effort to ensure the secure collection and transmission of sensitive user information using industry accepted data collection and encryption methodologies.

Donor Privacy PolicyThe Preeclampsia Foundation does not sell or otherwise disclose user information outside the organization. We will not sell, trade or share a donor's personal information with anyone else, nor send donor mailings on behalf of other organizations.

Should you wish to review or make corrections to your personal information, please click Login/Join at the top of the page and enter your login information. A page titled "Edit Your Details" will appear in the main body of the page where you can view and make corrections. If you wish to be removed entirely from our database, please email info@preeclampsia.org.

CookiesWe do not use cookies on the majority of our website pages. The donate pages do use "per session" cookies. Per session cookies last only for the life of your current browser load and use no permanent storage on your hard drive. The use of per session cookies is very common in modern Web sites.